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☆ Aboriginal spears returned to Australia after 250 years
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Jack Guy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —A British university has given back four spears taken more than 250 years ago from an aboriginal community in Australia by explorer Captain James Cook. Trinity College Cambridge permanently repatriated the spears to the La Perouse Aboriginal Community at a ceremony Tuesday, according to a joint statement from the college and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), which supported the move. “The spears were pretty much the first point of European contact, particularly British contact with Aboriginal Australia,” said Ray Ingrey, director of the Gujaga Foundation, a research organization working in the La Perouse community, in the statement. The resulting British colonization of Australia resulted in the introduction of foreign diseases, displacement, and massacres against the aboriginal people. National Museum of AustraliaSome members of the La Perouse Aboriginal Community are direct descendants of those who crafted the spears, according to the statement.

Persons: CNN —, Captain James Cook, ”, Ray Ingrey, AIATSIS Cook, Rod Mason, Noeleen Timbery, Sally Davies, Trinity Organizations: CNN, British, Captain James Cook . Trinity College Cambridge, La, La Perouse Aboriginal, Australian Institute of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Aboriginal, Gujaga Foundation, HMS, Trinity College, of Archaeology, National Museum of Australia, La Perouse Aboriginal Community, Aboriginal Land Council, Elders, Trinity Locations: Australia, La Perouse, Kamay, Aboriginal Australia, Botany, Kurnell, New Zealand, Cambridge, Kurnel, Perouse

☆ The Endangered Languages of New York
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-22 | by ( Alex Carp | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +19 min

Most people think of endangered languages as far-flung or exotic, the opposite of cosmopolitan. All told, there are more endangered languages in and around New York City than have ever existed anywhere else, says Perlin, who has spent 11 years trying to document them. She has published children’s books in Wakhi and other endangered languages of the Pamir mountains in Central Asia. By the start of the pandemic, the city had begun official outreach in nine Indigenous languages and recorded videos in several other endangered languages. We cross-referenced E.L.A.’s New York City language list with three independent databases that track the threat level of languages around the world: Ethnologue, which catalogs all known living languages in the world; UNESCO’s World Atlas of Languages, a survey of all the languages spoken in UNESCO member states; and the Endangered Languages Project, a site to which the public can contribute content, managed by the First Peoples’ Cultural Council and the Endangered Languages Catalogue (ELCat) project at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Persons: Bukhori, Zaza Bartangi, Alex Carp, Ross Perlin, Perlin, Zenaida Cantu, Ikhiil Mardakhayev, Ken Hale, Michael Krauss, Krauss, ” Eleanor Castillo Bullock, Eleanor Castillo Bullock, Gloria Angeles, Gloria Tadii, ’, Daniel Kaufman, Trung, Kaufman, ” Kaufman, Gola, Rasmina Gurung, Safiyatou, E.L.A, ”, “ Ahh, “, —, Ganja Perlin, Ibrahima Traore, Kamel Mrowa, Kante, Husniya Khujamyorova, Pamiri, ” Perlin, Seke, ” Gurung, ” Irwin Sanchez, ” Patricia Tarrant, Patricia Tarrant, Thelma Carrillo, Carrillo, Uttam Singha, Singha, Jean James, Jean, Gurung, doesn’t, Ibrahima Traore's, Coleman Donaldson Organizations: Lenape, Scottish, U.S, Arts Medicine Agriculture Education International, Rebeldía, Language Alliance, Perlin, Rockefeller Center, American Indian Community House, city’s Health Department, Manipuri, New York City, Endangered Language Alliance, of, UNESCO, First, Cultural, University of Hawaii Locations: Syrian, Pangasinan, Nauaran, Kurdish Moroccan, Zaza Bartangi Puerto, Taíno, New York City, New York, Nepal, Brooklyn, Bangladesh, India, Queens, Central Mexico, Mexico, Israel, Hope, Belize, Kukaa, Oaxaca, Manhattan, E.L.A, QUEENS, Pangasinan Kham, Woodside, Elmhurst, Jackson, Tshugsang, Kathmandu, Brooklyn , New York, America, Roosevelt, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Language, ”, Australian, — Culiacán, Mexico City , New York, Los Angeles, Ganja, Harlem, Bronx, Montclair , N.J, “, Bouaké, Lebanon, Midwood , Brooklyn, Wakhi, Central Asia, Pamir, Tibet, city’s, New, Latin America, United States, Jamaica Estates, Staten, Lummi, Manoa

☆ Crafting an Aboriginal Reality Out of History, Myth, and the Spiritual Realm
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-04 | by ( Natasha Frost | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Long before Alexis Wright was a towering figure in Australian letters, she took notes during community meetings in remote outback towns. Put to task by Aboriginal elders, her job was to take down their every word in longhand. The work was laborious, and it soothed her youthful fervor for the change that seemed all too slow to arrive. “It was good training, in a way,” she said in a recent interview at a public library close to the University of Melbourne, where until 2022 she held the role of Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature. “They were teaching you to listen, and they were teaching you patience.”Wright, 73, is arguably the most important Aboriginal Australian — or simply Australian — writer alive today.

Persons: Long, Alexis Wright, ”, “, ” Wright, clamors Organizations: University of Melbourne

☆ Rugby league-Court drops case against Australia's Mitchell and Wighton
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Wighton was celebrating his 30th birthday when police removed him from the nightclub and ordered him to leave the city area. I thought I saw something different," Australian media quoted the police officer as saying to Wighton in court on Tuesday. Australia Capital Territory (ACT) Magistrates Court judge Jane Campbell dismissed the case, triggering criticism of police and prosecutors. The arrests were prominently reported by national broadcasters, with video showing four police officers pinning Aboriginal Australian Mitchell face-down to the ground. "I hope everyone knows and understands the seriousness of what's gone on," South Sydney fullback Mitchell told reporters outside the court.

Persons: South Sydney Rabbitohs Latrell Mitchell, Loren Elliott, Latrell Mitchell, Jack Wighton, Mitchell, affray, Wighton, Jack, Jane Campbell, what's, it's, they've, I've, Don Furner, Shane Rattenbury, Ian Ransom, Sonali Paul Organizations: South Sydney Rabbitohs, National Rugby League, Sydney Roosters, REUTERS, Rights MELBOURNE, Australian, Police, ., Capital Territory, Aboriginal, South Sydney, Canberra Raiders, ACT Attorney, ACT Policing, Thomson Locations: Sydney, Australia, Canberra, Melbourne

☆ In Australia's Outback, Indigenous Voice Proposal Struggles to Inspire
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-04 | by ( Oct. | At P.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +9 min

Experts have partly attributed the slump to misinformation, along with a lacklustre "Yes" campaign and conservative opposition. That's something I have been wondering about," he said, referring to laws allowing Indigenous Australians to claim rights to land based on traditional occupation. Reaching out to Aboriginal Australia can be challenging, as communities are scattered over vast distances and speak more than 150 languages. Votes from the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory count toward only the former. Visiting Alice Springs last month, Reuters saw "Yes" campaign posters on walls in the town centre and in government office complexes.

Persons: Praveen Menon AREYONGA, Tarna Andrews, Andrews, Sarah Gallagher, Anthony Albanese, Albanese, Albert Namatjira, Patrick Oliver, Oliver, Conrad Ratara, Ratara, Les Turner, Turner, it's, Lidia Thorpe, Nampijinpa Price, Price, Kathy Coulthard, Alice Springs, Natasha McCormack, Bill Yan, Praveen Menon, Jill Gralow, David Crawshaw Organizations: Aboriginal, Torres Strait, Reuters, Labor, Voice, New, Central Land Council, Australian, Victoria Locations: Australia, Alice Springs, Areyonga, Northern Territory, New Zealand, Canada, U.S, Hermannsburg, Canberra, Northern

☆ Sydney Olympic stadium grandstand named after Indigenous icon Freeman
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SYDNEY, Sept 15 (Reuters) - The eastern grandstand of Sydney's Olympic stadium will be named after Cathy Freeman in tribute to the Indigenous runner who won the 400m gold medal at the venue during the 2000 Games. "This stadium and Sydney Olympic Park hold a truly special place in my heart and that will never change," the 50-year-old said. The grandstand will be named 'Cathy Freeman Stand'. Freeman also took the 400m silver at Atlanta and won back-to-back world titles in the distance. "For the past two Summer Olympic Games, Australia’s Olympic team has comprised more women than men, all of whom have an inspirational story," Australian Olympic Committee President Ian Chesterman said in a statement.

Persons: Cathy Freeman, Freeman, Ian Chesterman, Cathy Freeman’s, Ian Ransom, Peter Rutherford Organizations: New, Sydney Olympic, Australian, Atlanta Games, Atlanta, Olympic, Thomson Locations: New South Wales, Australia, Melbourne

[1/5] Children study the Dharug language at Lethbridge Park Public School in Sydney, Australia May 8, 2023. "Opening our own schools, that's sovereignty in action," said Webb, one of those seeking to revive the Indigenous language spoken in Coffs Harbour, a coastal town about 500 km (310 miles) north of Sydney. Authorities often relocated Indigenous people from their traditional lands, known as Country, and forcibly separated Indigenous children from their families, resulting in a "stolen generation" because of policies that ran from the mid-19th century to the 1970s. As late as the 1980s, authorities punished Indigenous people for speaking their languages. At the time of European colonisation, more than 250 Indigenous languages, including 800 dialects, were believed to have been spoken continent-wide, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) says.

Persons: Alasdair Pal, Clark Webb, Webb, Jayalaani, Ray Ingrey, Captain James Cook, you've, you'll, Ingrey, Jasmine Seymour, Maria Lock, Seymour, James Redmayne, Clarence Fernandez Organizations: Lethbridge Park Public School, REUTERS, Freedom, Torres, Authorities, Australian Institute of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Gujaga Foundation, Lethbridge Park Public, Thomson Locations: Sydney, Australia, COFFS HARBOUR, Australian, Coffs Harbour, Australia’s, New South Wales, Torres Strait, Great Britain, Dharawal, British, Lethbridge, Sydney's

☆ Colonization Was the ‘Luckiest Thing’ to Happen to Australia, Ex-Leader Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Natasha Frost | More About Natasha Frost | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A former prime minister of Australia has stirred a storm of outrage by describing colonization as “the luckiest thing that happened to this country” and praising Britain for being a better overlord than other nations ahead of a contentious referendum on Aboriginal representation in the country. “I do hold the view that the luckiest thing that happened to this country was being colonized by the British,” the former prime minister, John Howard, 84, told The Australian newspaper in an interview this week. “Not that they were perfect by any means, but they were infinitely more successful and beneficent colonizers than other European countries.”Mr. Howard’s remarks were denounced on social media, with some people calling him “ignorant,” “racist” and “evil.”Australia is no longer a British colony, even as it retains King Charles III as its head of state, and Aboriginal Australians continue to face the harrowing effects of colonialism, including significant hardship and discrimination.

Persons: John Howard, Mr, Howard’s, King Charles III Organizations: Australian, Aboriginal Australians Locations: Australia, Britain, British

"I think most of the world is watching," Megan Davis, constitutional lawyer and Aboriginal woman who is leading the campaign for the change, told Reuters in an interview. A successful referendum will set a precedent that will be "really useful for other indigenous populations around the world in relation to recognition," Davis said. While a majority of Indigenous Australians back the change, support has been wavering at a national level, according to recent opinion polls. In the past there have been 44 proposals for constitutional change in 19 referendums, and only eight of these have passed. Pat Anderson, another Indigenous woman and campaign leader said this was the best political space Aboriginal Australians have been in since their struggle started over 200 years ago.

Persons: Megan Davis, Davis, Pat Anderson, Anderson, Stephen Coates Organizations: SYDNEY, Reuters, First Nations, Nations, UN, United, Indigenous Peoples, Australia's, Thomson Locations: Australia, Torres, Scandinavia, British, Australia's, Canada, New Zealand, United States

☆ Australia’s popular Fraser Island has reverted to its traditional name of K’gari
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Amarachi Orie | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

The world’s largest sand island is now officially known by its traditional name, K’gari, the government of the Australian state of Queensland announced Wednesday. The name change formally recognizes the connection of the indigenous Butchulla people to the UNESCO World Heritage site on Australia’s east coast. “In our creation stories, our stories handed down by generations, it has always been K’gari and always will be,” Gayle Minniecon, chairperson of Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation, said in a press release. It’s what we call home,” Joyce Bonner, Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation Language and Cultural coordinator, said in a statement ahead of the reinstatement. K’gari means “paradise” in the Butchulla language and is pronounced “GUR-rie” or “Gurri,” according to the Queensland government.

Persons: CNN —, ” Gayle Minniecon, “, ” Joyce Bonner, GUR, rie ”, Reuben Nutt, K’gari, ”, Patricia O’Callaghan Organizations: CNN, Queensland, UNESCO, Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal Corporation, Butchulla, Tourism, “ Locations: “, Queensland, Fraser

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